Why I don't care about Obama's preacher.

[CitizenRob]

Anybody who believes in god is completely 100% insane to me. Just because one is making insane statements that offend other insane people doesn't make their insanity any worse than the self deception necessary to believe in the first place.

In American politics I have to accept that politicians have to wear their church affiliations like a badge. I have to accept that separation of church and state is not a constitutional value most Americans are adherents for.

So in the end, I don't care what Obama's preacher said to him. His preacher is insane, that preacher's true believers are insane, and so are all the other preachers and true believers. Why anybody would be surprised that somebody capable of such self deception would say something so offensive to reality is beyond me.

The reality is that Obama is probably a secular atheist, like most people in power. The reason he didn't know the radical filth coming from this preacher's mouth is because he didn't actually pay any attention to what the preacher was saying. That is comforting to me. He wields religion like every other politician, as a tool to rake in the irrational and the stupid.

[leftofcool]

1. " Obama is probably a secular atheist"

But he says he is a Christian and prays to Jesus every night.

[CitizenRob]

2. Yeah a lot of our atheist founding fathers said that in public too.

Yet you look at their private papers and it becomes clear they were as much atheists as was possible at the time.

[styersc]

10. And its just as likely that you are a person of faith who claims to

be an atheist because you think it is cool or maybe to be provocative.

Anyone with small children knows the tactic. Common amongst the immature.

But if you are saying that Obama lies about his true beliefs, can we trust anything he says?

[LSparkle]

3. I think this issue is that Wright was an ADVISOR -- not that he was a "spiritual"

advisor. If Obama had had an advisor (not necessarily his minister) on his campaign saying
these things -- a la Geraldine Ferraro -- he'd still have questions to answer. In my opinion,
this is a question about how accountable you are for your surrogates, not necessarily about
Obama's spirituality.

[CitizenRob]

4. That seems fair.

[BuyingThyme]

5. kcik

[CitizenRob]

6. ouch

[DangerDave921]

7. how do you define insane?

Because you are lumping about 3 billion people into that rubric of insanity.

[CitizenRob]

8. I don't care what the number is. Just because lots of people share the delusion doesn't make it ok.

[DangerDave921]

9. But how do you define it?

My point wasn't the numbers as much as what your definition was.

[CitizenRob]

11. -anybody- who believes in any god or supernatural being.

[DangerDave921]

12. LOL

Well that's some good a priori reasoning!